blat

Verb

blat (third-person singular simple present blats, present participle blatting, simple past and past participle blatted)

1. (intransitive) To cry, as a calf or sheep; bleat.
2. (intransitive) To make a senseless noise.
   • 1991, Stephen King, Needful Things:

     A moment later the engine roared into life. Exhaust blatted through the straight-pipes; people stopped on the street to look.

3. To talk inconsiderately; blab.
4. To produce an overrich or overblown sound on a brass instrument such as a trumpet, trombone, or tuba.
5. (transitive) To utter loudly or foolishly; blurt.

Noun

blat (uncountable)

1. The Soviet system of connections and social relationships; one's social or business network (in Russian or Soviet society).

   Synonym: (from Chinese) guanxi

   To open a new business in Russia you need blat.

   • 1998, Alena V. Ledeneva, Russia's Economy of Favours. Blat, Networking and Informal Exchange, University of London, →ISBN, [Marketing description of that book hardly written by the author]:

     Alena Ledeneva's book is the first to analyse blat in all its historical, socio-economic and cultural aspects, and to explore its implications for post-Soviet society. In a socialist distribution system which resulted in constant shortages, blat developed into an 'economy of favours' which shadowed an overcontrolling centre and represented the reaction of ordinary people to the social constraints they faced.

   • 2003, William Gibson, Pattern Recognition (Bigend cycle; book 1), New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, →ISBN, page 180:

     “We call her that but really it’s more post-Soviet. She's the blat girl.”
     “The what?”
     “Blat. What the old boys in your country called juice, I think. She's connected, Marina is.

   • 2005, Adam Czarnota, Martin Krygier, Wojciech Sadurski, Rethinking the Rule of Law After Communism, page 334:

     The bribe caused the inflation of the social capital defined as blat. Monetarization of social relations led to the inflation of the social investments that the ordinary citizen has put in their blat networks. Only blat networks of the powerful survived […]

   • 2006, Alena V. Ledeneva, How Russia Really Works. The Informal Practices That Shaped Post-Soviet Politics and Business (Culture and Society after Socialism), Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, →ISBN, page 2:

     I argue that just as blat was an essential type of know-how of Soviet socialism, these postsocialist informal practices represent the “know-how” of post-Soviet Russia.

   • 2017, Joseph S. Berliner, "Blat", in David Twichell, The shallow stratigraphy and sand resources offshore of the Mississippi bar, age 326:

     The distinction between the use of blat for personal enrichment and for smoothing the work of the enterprise was emphasized in the interview testimony. […] The supply agent, for example, often has large quantities of money at his disposal for arranging his blat, much of which he might use for himself but which he devotes instead to making deals of advantage to the enterprise.

   • 2017, EASO Country of Origin Information Report. Russian Federation. State Actors of Protection‎, →DOI, →ISBN, archived from the original on 5 June 2021, page 32:

     Semukhina and Reynolds mention underlying reasons for the widespread corruption: pre-Soviet and Soviet practices (especially the system of blat⁽¹⁹¹⁾, which continued in the wake of the breakdown of the Soviet Union), institutional factors within the police (e.g. highly militarised structure, lack of accountability), a weak civil society, economic causes (maximising income and minimising risks) and a culture of ‘disrespect for the law’⁽¹⁹²⁾.

Derived terms

Inflection

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Descendants

• Dutch: blad
  • Afrikaans: blad (“page”), blaar (“leaf”)
• Limburgish: blaad

Noun

blat n

1. leaf

Adjective

blat

1. flat

   Synonym: vlach

Declension

Derived terms

• blātian

Related terms

• blātan

Descendants

• Middle English: *blat, *blate, *blot, *blote
  • >? Scots: blate, blait

Descendants

• Middle High German: blat
  • Alemannic German: Blatt
  • Central Franconian: Blatt
    • Hunsrik: Blaat
    • Luxembourgish: Blat
  • East Central German:
    • Vilamovian: błot
  • German: Blatt
  • Rhine Franconian: Blaat, Blatt
    • Pennsylvania German: Blatt
  • Yiddish: בלאַט (blat)

Declension

Collocations

Noun

blat n (plural blaturi)

1. (cooking) sheet, layer

Noun

blat n (plural blaturi)

1. (slang) illegal activity, particularly travelling on a train without a ticket.
2. (soccer) match fixing